The present invention relates to a vehicle for transporting heavy equipment having hydraulic systems over railroad tracks utilizing the hydraulic system of the heavy equipment to drive a hydraulic motor means on the railroad track vehicle.
Of known vehicles for transporting heavy equipment over railroad tracks, one has utilized four separate wheels each independently connected to the frame with two of the wheels at one end of the vehicle each driven by a separate hydraulic torque motor. Such an arrangement has been vulnerable to fracture of the axles through slippage of the wheels over a portion of the track followed by subsequent gripping of the wheel in a manner which induces an excessive strain on the axle. Other vehicles have employed axles which are affixed directly to the frame. In such arrangements when an uneven portion of the track is encountered, one wheel of the vehicle lifts off of the track making the vehicle subject to derailment.
Inasmuch as it is often necessary for vehicles used for transporting heavy equipment over railroad tracks to be stationed near areas where electrically shorting across the tracks causes highway crossing barriers to be activated and alarms to ring it is desirable to have the wheels on one side of the track insulated from the other side in order to prevent such tripping of alarms and activating of barriers. No known method of insulation has achieved a means for insulating the wheels in such a way as permits adjustment of the wheels to variations in elevation of the track so as to avoid derailment and to prevent sudden application of torque to the axles when wheels encounter slippery areas of the track followed by areas which are not slippery.